CPC finderscope bracket screws issue

Finally had some reasonable skies last night and I setup my new CPC 9.25 with wedge. Unfortunately I got to the step where you attach the finderscope to the CPC only to find that I was missing the longer screws that I apparently need. After discovering that they were supposedly all screwed in I took a look. 5 of the 6 screws were not long enough even though they are all screwed completely in. There is one screw on the far left that looks long enough and sticks almost to the mirror in the ota. Unfortunately it is so stuck in that I have badly stripped the top trying to remove it.

I went to Home Depot and purchased additional 8-32 1/2 inch screws. I'm a little concerned to leave the one on the far left in the scope but after some testing it appears that it has at least the same amount of clearance as the ones on the arms.

It's hard to set aside something you spent good money on but I ditched the CPC finder and attached a Telrad. It made a gigantic improvement in the ease of pointing my scope. And, I got it used at OPT, $20. Best extra money I've spent so far.

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The Telrad comes with a base that has a couple of strips of double stick tape on the bottom. It won't move. The whole thing is made from ABS and feels "cheap", but don't let that fool you. I promise it will make an immediate improvement.

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a couple more, not too good on sizing pics, but one pic is of wedge mount and jig I made to get better polar alignment with compass on initial setup. Is a lot better than standing behind tripod and trying to make sure are in line with it.. I got the idea from someone elses post in here so cannot take credit for idea

What I wound up with thru trial and error on mine was stock finder, then to stellarvue with a swivel eyepiece that was to be cats meow. That was frustrating as when swiveling eyepiece to try and avoid the neck kinks it would keep shifting out of alignment with scope. Then got my Telrad and am a happy camper, and fits into the mounts I had with no filing or anything, and loosen two screws and it come off with mount. When reattaching it is almost always dead on with scope alignment and am on a wedge so no kinked neck, body contortions, or chinked face trying to get eye onto eyepiece. With the Telrad, the eyeball kissing the eyepiece is a thing of the past.

It is easiest to align the finder in daylight using a point target (say the top of a radio antenna) about a mile or two away. Center it in the scope then adjust the finder to match. When you try to align it at night on a celestial object they will move on you unless you use Polaris.

Someone on the Cats ans Casses Forum posted an excellent suggestion for mounting a Telrad parallel to the optical axis of the OTA when using sticky tape. He cinched a thread between a screw on the front cell and an in-line screw on the rear cell and used the thread as a guide to mounting the Telrad base.

you should already have a base mount, and your celestron, why are you looking at orion sites?? I am pretty sure this is what I have mine mounted with and mounts onto the base mount you should already have ""Stellarvue R50D - 50mm Finderscope Rings on Dovetail Stalk"" I got mine from OPT Corp but can check around.. Just a FYI to remember, this type mount keeps it well ouit of the way of interfering with anything.. and loosen 2 screws and is removed and reinstalled. Alignment never really changes as mounts are parallel to scope, Kasey

The Scopestuff bracket to fit in the CPC finder bracket works well and I have one. It is highly recommended. I am in a suburban light polluted sky and find that star hopping is inconvenient at best; if you wish to "manually" slew around to find objects, I'd probably recommend a right angle finder of at least 50x; I was able to sort of geometrically find objects without true star hopping using the Telrad. Tim

Does anyone know if Celestron sells a finder bracket meant to be attached to the right side of the scope? Given my screw issue on the left side and the huge screws on the finder attachment I have only screwed my finder bracket into one of the holes on the right side.

At the moment this is not an issue and it is very stable. However this maybe an issue when I attach an AT72 on top.

I actually had more luck with the finderscope last night but I still intend to go telrad route ASAP. For what it is worth I have found that getting the O-Ring really tight is key for being able to make small adjustments to the finder.